Transcripts For FBC The Willis Report 20121026

Unbelievable of softballs. Its like so, what was your first date with michele like . I mean, is this what passes for journalism with the president . I think so. A lot of journalists are on his side, so theyre giving him an easy shot, but the thing is hes having a hard time with young voters. We have 12 percent unemployment for 1829 year olds. And if there were so enthusiastic back in 2008. Now theyre living in their parents home and they are upset and disenchanted. Gerri last time around the president 66 percent. His competitor at that time, john mccain, 32 percent among young voters. How hard is this at the end of the day when you look at this for people to up signon with the president when you cant get a job . Okay. Gerri sorry about that. Im asking both of you. Youngbear voters were an indispensable part of his Winning Coalition in 2008. 23 million Younger Voters went and cast their ballot. The vast majority of them went to barack obama. That is why he has these tail marys trying to get Bruce Springsteen and in ohio and iowa, trying to a kid young people up to vote for him. These are not college kids. Thousands are coming out on college campuses. The mtv was swayed. Nike said, you wont have any hardhitting journalistic questions. Will these tactics work . They do, but not to the same degree they did in 2008. Gerri the question is all about whether young people go and vote at the end of the day. Something that i think is really important. This new ad with a young girl. She is an actress and a hit series called girls. I want you to listen to this. Its pretty provocative. Your first time should not be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy. Is to be with a guy with beautiful, someone who really cares about and understands women. My first time voting, it was gerri really . What do you make of this . Part of the problem with this for me is that it is yet more evidence that the president is not being president ial. The campaign has to go along with this. Its out there. It is kind of atrocious. It is creeping. If the president wanted to disassociate from and he can have a super back to it, but for the campaign to be involved with this baja shows the desperation. A 11 or 12 days before the election and the president is still trying to excite his base. Ads like this, what you should have done six months ago. Now you should be reaching to the independence, the centrists, the people you dont already have in camp. I think any time he does Something Like this, the profanity and all the attacks on mitt romney, i think it backfired backfires among a different demographic. Older voters who might be inclined or who are undecided will look at this and say, thats not for me. Why would he do that. As you say, its on president ial and is [talking over each other] gerri you say this should have been used earlier. I dont think it should have been used at all. Its kind of offensive. The only way they can reach out to young women, because this is the demographic theyre reaching out to come is to appeal to us through a cheap Birth Control, sandra fluke and now this at comparing. [talking over each other] gerri that is the only thing on your agenda. What is the president missing . Needs to understand that the economy is the numberone issue, does not matter if you are woman or man. The problem is we need jobs. But he has no plan. This is all about distracting, turning your attention to something that he thinks you will like instead of a job. Its let them eat cake. Gerri jason. The frivolity of his campaign. Its binders full of women, bayonets, big bird, and at the top of this message that we are comparing a sexual experience to voting for barack obama. I think the analogy is apropos because another four years of barack obama will be painful. Gerri we have a gallup tracking poll with from the leading obama 5146 . And yet in the desperation that we are talking about, you alluded to it, but we did not say it. The comment from the president about romney calling him of the answer. Now he used the word. The president used the word. The president of the united states. Gerri what does that tell you . What is interesting about all of these, what theyre showing is that the debates, a lot of independents like to present less having seen him in the three debates whereas a lot of independents like mitt romney much more. The washington postabc poll, 4710 for romney liking him more rather than less. For obama it was 1726 liking him less rather than more. So the debates did not serve the president well, and he continues down this path. Its kind of inexplicable. Gerri i want to play some sound from all right who i think some of the problem. Voters passed. College graduates should not have to live out their 20s and their child to bed rooms staring out at fading obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. Gerri doesnt that crystallize the problem for young voters . Sure when you have 15 percent unemployment in you have 50 percent of them who cannot find jobs once they graduate. Staying on the counter. The problem is, though, you still have the recent poll, a harvard poll has obama leading men romney by 90 Percentage Points in that age demographic and 1829. These are your classic case obamas zombies. Barack obama, is campaigning in his actual policies are going to make it a lot harder for young people to find jobs and pay up this enormous debt and is sitting on our doorstep. Yet there will still cast a vote by and large for barack obama in todays. Gerri you look at the way he campaigns. Here is money for you, money for you, student loans, free Birth Control demand for you, im going to give you, you know foods stamps or immigration documents. Had is that sense to you. I think it sounds awful. I personally would not be sucked into voting for him just because of that. I think the point is that young people arent enthusiastic about in. What matters is turnout. And i think romney does not have to when the end people, all of the and people. All he has to do is reduce the margin by which obama won them in 2008 which will be that big of a problem because of the fact that people are now enthusiastic, theyre not like the war in 2008 to 61 to see esther in the white house . Is that important for you . Re looking for someone to lead the free world . I want someone who can provide more Economic Freedom and provide a better life for americans. Obama is not even had to. Gerri jason and then you. We all want an adult. These are important issues facing the world from the economy and home to the threats abroad, and to have somebody in there who is pretending and playing in joking around, i dont think it cuts within months serious people. Gerri that is the way it feels. I dont even think hes a hipster. I think he is a phony allaround. David stern, the nba commissioner saying he is described pretty much when he plays basketball, the guy wheres mom jeans. I dont even [talking over each other] gerri you made fun of my jeans. Is see a hipster are not . Gerri im sorry. That was just crew of me, but i could not make fun could not help myself. A quick round here. Who is going to win . We are close. Romney has the momentum. Obama has to break romneys momentum. I dont see how does that. Romney. Gerri jason. And going to have to go with romney. The momentum is on his side in every single swing state. Gerri all right. We will hold you to that, and if youre not right we will bring you back. Thank you so much for coming on tonight. Great job. Im sorry i make fun of you. I apologize. Its a cake. [laughter] gerri thanks a bunch. Now we want to know what you think. Here is our question. Are the democrats and presence getting desperate . Log on to gerriwillis. Com, on the righthand side of the screen not share the results of the end of the show. More to come. Were not done, including the trip behind todays government members on the economy. Gdp, and mitt romney making his final pitch for this Closing Argument on the economy. Reaction from the former chief economic adviser to the president. [ male announcer ] this is the age of knowing wht youre made of. Why let erectile dysfunction get in your way . Talk to your doctor abt viagra. Ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; t may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, an abnormal vision. To avoid longterm injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. Stop taking agra and call your ctor right away if you experience a sudden decrea or loss in vision or hearing. This is the age of taking action. Viagra. Talk to your doctor. Looking for a better place to put your cash . Heres one you may not have thought of fidelity. Now you dont have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank like nofee atms, all over the world. Free checkwriting and mobile deposits. Now depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. Free online bill payments. A highly acclaimed cret card with 2 cash back into your fidelity account. Open a fidelity Cash Management account today and discover another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Gerri med rodney taking the president to task on the economy and a closing bids to voters in the battleground state of viola today. Romney slamming president obama armas added policies that have slowed our recovery while promising big change under of romneyright administration. With more on this, senior fellow for the Hoover Institute and former chief economic adviser to president george w. Bush. Welcome back to the show. Always great to have you here. Glad to be with you. Gerri i want to play a little bit of the sounds of our viewers can get a sense of the town. Short. The jobs, where are the 9 million more jobs the president obama promised his stimulus would have created by. [speaking in native tongue] there in china, mexico, canada, countries that have made the sales more attractive for entrepreneurs and business and investment. Even as president obamas policies have made it less attractive for them here. Thing. Gerri and we have one more jobs report to come. What do you expect . Is it going to help romney or the president . I dont think its going to make much difference at all. If you look at the picture that the economy has been traveling through for the past three years now, basically were in a situaaion where we have continued slow growth. We have growth at about 2 percent per year since the turnaround in june of 2009. I normal recovery should have doubled that, and unless we get to double that kind of growth are not going to have significant job growth. One of the things that go ahead. Im sorry. Gerri i was going to make the point that obama makes that it was bushs fault and we have some sound on that. Heres the president. What he did with what he inherited made the problem worse. [applause] in just four short years she borrowed 6 trillion nearly, adding almost as much debt held by the public as of prior american president s combined. Gerri clearly that was not president obama. That was mitt romney in the campaign trail today in his economic speech. He is laying out his argument that we are having to bar from the chinese for everything we buy. Is that a good enough answer for what is going on . Well, i think what the president , of course, wants to say is that we have had some significant job growth. He uses a number 5 million because he ignores the government sector. Even if you use the actual number which is about 4 million jobs, most of that job growth is jobs that accommodate the growth in the population. So unfortunately the number is actually 87 percent of all jobs created have just accommodate the growth of population. So what we are getting is about 18,000 jobs per month since the turnaround in june of 2009. That means that it will take our entire lifetime just to get our jobs back that we lost back in 2009. We are just not going anywhere near fast enough. We need a dramatic change in policy in order to get the economy growing again. The policies have not worked. Surely the president inherited its economy, but what we are experiencing right now is not inherited. These are the policies that he has instituted. Gerri the president did make the point this week that he wants a grand bargain. He wants to get together with the other side of the aisle, find a way of fixing the fiscal cliff. So he does seem to be inching ever so slowly over the years and years and years to the right conclusion. Do you have any confidence in canada happen . I, you know, again, i think our best predictor of the future is the past, and the president has not been successful in putting together a coalition. He has not use the coalitions strategy of the past few years. His strategy has been anything but coalition. It has been strictly democrat must pleasant pushing policies through. Im not confident we will see any kind of coalition forming, although i sure hope we do because the fiscal cliff that you mentioned his a significant impediment to the economy. If we see very large increases in taxes, and by the way, never liked the work fiscal cliff because it tends to but still lower spending with higher taxes. Most of the problem is on the tax side, not the spending side. If we dont get that fixed were going to have the very significant drag on this economy , sufficiently significant that we could go into a recession. Gerri the National Association of manufacturers out with a study showing that if everything does stay in place we will get unemployment at 12 , lose 6 million jobs. The report even says that the threat of the fiscal cliff cut half a percent of the gdp this year. The impact is already there. It will mean fewer jobs, less robust economy. The you think they are talking up the story are too pessimistic , do you think theyre right on target . Well, i would not doubt for their numbers, but i certainly agree with the direction that theyre talking about. There is no question that it is not just uncertainty. It is the concern that we will have higher taxes and taxes on sectors of the economy that have been important in creating growth. Governor romney has talked a lot about small business. I think the president has proposed that, but there is an important point there, and that is that if you tax the top earners at 39 your hitting small businesses. When you talk about investment, when you talk about capital gains, you talk about dividends, taxation at ordinary income levels, youre talking about significant impediments to growth. That is how you create jobs in this country. We know it works. There is a historical record on the stuff. This is not Just Campaign rhetoric. If you look at the literature the studies this, and i looked at a party to marino that the policies it creates are low taxes, a good trade, cautious eye to regulation and a fiscal policy that is cautious in terms of creating a government structure that can grow the economy. Gerri we havent done that. Were not moving in that direction. Gerri quick last question. Gdp numbers. If you back out Government Spending it is a little over 1 . Is this fast enough . Are these numbers being cut . Well, i doubt they have been cut. Look. They are bad enough as is. You dont have to cook them. 2 percent is nowhere what we need. The longterm growth rate is 3 . Recovery is 4 . If you have to cut numbers to get 2 youre in pretty bad shape. I would say even at 2 we are talking about an eternity before we get back to where we need to be. We are already at 12 percent below where this economy should be. It would take us six years at 5 percent growth to get back to that. We need to get going in a new direction in terms of economic structure. Gerri thank you for coming on. Its always a pleasure to talk to you. Comebacks in. A pleasure to be with ou. Thank you for having me. Gerri another one of his points, the president has a knack for picking losers when it comes to grain companies. You know the list. Solyndra, begin. Another part of the Program Green stimulus plan is the job Training Program. Today according to a new internal audit that too is a loser. The Energy Department Inspector General says the program was training workers who already had jobs and failed to place them in jobs after the trading was over. In fact, only 38 percent of those who went through the program got jobs, and 16 percent of those people kept the job for more than six six months. Imagine that. 52 percent were already working in the Energy Sector and did not need training to begin with. This Training Program that was only 16 percent success will cost taxpayers 328 nav Million Dollars and the price tag could go up to 400 million. This president does not have a record to stand down when it comes to his stimulus program. The big one failed, the little one failed, and they all costly too much. Still to come, forecasters say when Hurricane Sandy heads the east coast it will be harder and wider than last year sir can i read. The latest on what some are calling for frank and storm. Weak economic numbers. The white house cheering. What this white house and the president does not want you to year. Stay with us. Im a conservative investor. I invest in what i know. I turned 65 last week. Im getting married. Planning a life. There are risks, sure. But, theres no reward without it. I want to be prepared for the long haul. I see a world bursting with opportunities. India, china, brazil, ishares, smallcaps, largecaps, ishares. Industrials. Low cost. Every ishares. Ounts. Income. Dividends. Bonds. I like bonds. Ishares. Commodits. Diversification. Choices. My own ideas. Ishares. I want to use the same stuff the big guys use. Ishares. 8 out of 10 large, professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. Introducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio. Tax efficient and low cost Building Blocks to help you keep more of what you earn. Call your advisor. Visit ishares. Com. Ishares. Ishares. Yeah, ishares. Call 1800ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Read and consider it carefully before investing. Oh, hey alex. Just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. Great its always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. Wow, your hair looks great. Didnt realize they did photoshop here. Hey, good call on those mugs. Cant let em see what youre drinking. You know, im glad were both running a nice, can race. No need to get nasty. Heres youhonk if you had an affair with taylor yard sign. Looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. Now save 50 on banners. Gerri is the white house once again messing with the economic numbers . First it was jobs, no questions about the gdp numbers out today. Stay with us. Gerri sometimes i feel just a little bit like alice in wonderland. When i look at government data, for example, on the economy lately nothing is as it seems. Take todays gdp number, the big kahuna of economic numbers. The government says the economy expanded at 2 in the third quarter. Better than the zero expected number. Do you think thats good . Well, until you realize the improvement is largely due to Government Spending. Take a look. Thats federal spending, nine and a half up. You have to go back more than two years to beat that when federal nondefense spending jumped sharply and back even further to the deaths of the recession and the height of stimulus spending to see a similar gain. That, my friends, is the trajectory. You know what, smoke and mirrors. Government spending is not the same thing as companys small and large expanding, growing, selling, generating revenue. Private sector revenues come from people illingly buying products. Government spending is financed by compulsive tory lead to the tax system of fines. One definitely is better than the other is a source of economic growth. Here is the white house statement about this report. The economy is moving in the right direction. Right direction . Shame on you, mr. Krueger. We have yet to open up the throttle on right direction. The growth we have is puny. If you excluded Government Spending for the quarter growth was the same dismal rate it was in the second quarter. Business investment in things like office buildings, pipelines, the big stuff. That fell. The first jobs as the First Quarter of last year. But ive gotten used to the slightest hand. Guest today reported how california misreporting made weekly jobless claims look better than they really were earlier in the month. And then there is the mysterious 873,000 jobs that appeared in september. The biggest increase in 30 years. Just in time to drive down the jobless rate. Look. I know conspiracy theorist, but as alice said, it is getting curiouser and curiouser as we go deeper and deeper into these economic numbers. Understand that we will continue to follow them for you. Thats what i think. Now i want to know what you think. And email. Gerriwillis. Com. Coming up on the willis report, right before the kids go trecker tree, its about to get scary. Are you prepared . We will break down the latest. And just after carving that halloween pumpkin get set to carve the thanksgiving turkey with the holidays fast approaching the door or your travel plans in place . Tips on the best years later. Also, we all know the fiscal cliff will crest the market, but could this be the least of our worries . Our expert explains with a shaky earnings season means for you. Were on the case next on the were on the case next on the willis report. Hone list thats a few names longer. You see us bank on busier highways. On once empty fields. Everyday you see all the ways all of at us bank are helping grow our economy. Lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. Everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. Us bank. [ male announcer ] it was designed to escape the ordinary. It feels like it can escape graty. The 2013 cclass coupe. Starting at 37,800. Gerri welcome the could be the storm of the decade. The hurricane board barrels toward the eastern seaboard with already deadly repercussions. Joining me with uptodate coverage, fox news meteorologist what is going not . What is the latest . Its going to be back o more than the storm of the decade to namibia last 50, 100 years. It is a big one. It does not look all that impressive. You dont see what we like to see or what people can get excited about on direct and when they see that. It is not bad. Bringing rain to florida right now and has been far last 36 hours. Its a slow mover. We have another 23 days off as it movee us toward the northeast. It takes this unprecedented lefthand turn back toward the coast. This is potentially the worst Case Scenario that you can see for a place like new york city. The center of the storm goes to the center of this line right now, that puts all of jersey, the long island sound, and all of long island in the bat area of the storm. It also, with the way that shape is of the land, it funnels all the water into there and it cannot escape. We will be talking about a very significant one storm surge. Models trimming them with just a little bit, but this is where the biggest storm surges, and it is a really long lasting storms. We will see some Hurricane Force winds monday and tuesday, about two days. Rain that goes on for about 23 days. We will see some many people without power because it is not really going to be a hurricane when it makes landfall. We will be more like a noreaster, but i noreaster we have never seen before. So a lot of trees still have the leaves on. Coinciding with the full moon which means your tides will be higher. All the storm surge. Everything here will be seeing a lot of rain and wind. We might see 10 million plus people without power. Those kinds of numbers. Takes a long time to get as many people back on line. Well be talking about Power Outages for people in many cases slightly over one week. Gerri i see the track of your storm. What areas do you expect to have the worst damage from the rain, water, flooding, and in the wind when everyone is in on. There is no doubt. Inland sections, we are going to ohio and into western pennsylvania. They will be dealing with wind. The wind is for everybody. The rain is for everybody. Power outages are for everybody. The center of the storm, the worst beach erosion and the worst of the storm surges to the right side of that. I have to tell you, if we see the center of the storm, the single and it goes to the south of new york city, we are potentially seeing the worst from the we have seen in the new york city area ever. You would get a storm surge coming into the long and sound from all that water piles up into new york harbor. And the east river is what can access to the water cant get out. We could be seen flooding in toward new york city and long island would take a beating. Jersey shore probably wont look the same after next wednesday and thursday. Gerri new york city is talking about the possibility of shutting down the subways and having that happened the last time. But nothing really went awry. And i am a little afraid that people are lulled into a sense of complacency. Tell us what makes this storm so strong. Generally on a hurricane when you deal with hurricanes people think you need a warm Water District in which is true, but because the storm is going to be interacting with a very strong storm coming off of the land, it is going to go through a different type of strengthening process and explode as soon as you get all the energy in the tropical moisture that you have from the hurricane meeting about this other storm, and this is the kind of scenario. What this means come anywhere you see green or blue, that is heavy rain. When you see these lines that are so tightly together, that is strong wind. That is maine, that goes back towards ohio, west virginia, down to the carolinas. Potentially right here across the coast. Youre absolutely right that i read at least on the coast was not that bad. It was moving pretty quickly. It was a weakening storm. This is going to be a strengthening storm, and a slow mover. The coast not as bad. Gerri we wont get to the polling stations. See what you can do. Its going to be tough. Gerri its going to be tough. We will be watching your report to find that the latest. Thank you so much for helping us. Really appreciate it. A billion dollars in damages was some folks are talking about the, the latest estimate of just how bad the started before residents of the east coast right here in new york city. Here with some tips on preparing for the worst imogenes salvatore, Senior Vice President at the Insurance Information institute. I just want to say to you, this is the storm that your industry has been talking about for i dont know how long. Absolutely. Always telling people to be prepared and make sure they have enough insurance and to have an evacuation plan. Lets hope people have taken that to heart and are really ready for the storm. Gerri a lot of conversation about what would happen if a big storm came to the northeast of here. And i know yoo guys have been warning people for a long time to have enough coverage. The you think people here are ready for something of this magnitude . The good news is that when discovered, so a lot of the damage for this storm is going to be covered. Your coverage for wind. Windrelated damage. Trees that are falling. You are also, if we get that went to remakes that i keep hearing about also. Snow. Gerri snow in addition to everything, 2 feet. To feed, 3 feet of rain, those are things that are covered. The one thing that is not covered is flooding, and that you need to get separate insurance for. Gerri from the government. Either from the National Insurance program but also increasingly from private insurance. Gerri all right. I mentioned a billion dollars in damage. Do you agree . We dont know. We dont predict we dont know what will happen. Gerri where would it ranked . If it was a billion. I can tell you that hurricane irene last year was 43 billion in damage, and that was the top ten costliest hurricane. Gerri we are not done with hurricane season. We have a lot of time left to go. Hurricanes are august, but basically it runs until the end of november. So we could even have another storm after this. Gerri what is the one thing you tell people to do this weekend . Everybody should basically do a home inventory. You have time, your home, a detailed list of your stuff. We have a free application and suffer to make it easy. This way if you have to file a claim you know what you have. It will also help you to buy the right amount of insurance and a lot of good tips for making sure you have the right amount of coverage. Gerri bring in your pink flamingos people. You cannot have them outside. They become missiles. That is another good thing. Take in everything from outside. Gerri all right. Thank you for coming on. Appreciate your time and tips. Coming at, apples stock dropped 100 in the past month. Is this a buying opportunity or a sign you should sell the stock . Next, hurricanes and the may disrupt your travel plans. Trips on what to do plus up to save money this Holiday Travel season. Dont go away. Follow the wings. Gerri more severe than last years hurricane irene which was no picnic, my friends. He would have to travel smart, Senior Editor core discount. Welcome to the show. We just got news tonight, just south of American Airlines is telling people that they will give customers flexibility to change their flight. Now, that comes as no surprise to you, im sure, but should people book way, way out . This looks like this could go on for weeks. What they are doing is a typical process when you are faced with terrible weather like hurricane. What they will do is offer acute options, refund or a change in fair. Change in the amount of time you can travel. What is tricky is the offer a window to change the ticket, so you have to really call up your carrier, but can change the flight right away so that you are still within the window will you not pay additional fees costs. Gerri be careful how you do it because you cannot do it absolutely anything you want to. Lets talk about advice that you give people peak is as you were telling me during the break if this type Airline Travel for two, three weeks. It can go on for a while. What do you do if youre planning to travel . Step number one, two, three. Number one is go online, check your particular carriers. They will give you explicit instructions on what is happening with the carrier and what the options are. The same goes with your hotel. You want to call tte Hotel Directly and work with them on figuring out the best plan for you, whether that is a refund or rescheduling of your trip. The second thing is to really be prepared and have your smart phone ready. It is the best friend to anyone dealing with travel or changes in travel. Download applications that will give you flights that is, delays, cancellations, realtime weather reports and on the flight booking changes. All of those tools will be really helpful for you. Gerri dont even stand in line if you can do it on your phone, all that much better off. Tips of your flight gets canceled, and some of those that did not know. You have no right to a free hotel room. The airlines and not have to put you up overnight. Thats right, and that is a common question people ask. Truly it is not something that is built into a customers bill of rights. If it is something that they want to offer, thats great, but you should be on your smart fun making plans to stay in a nearby hotel before you even, you know, get that changing your flight. It is the most important thing. Gerri can they get a refund . You can get a refund. That is usually one of the first things offered. Gerri our next available flight next available flight, but sometimes that is not for weeks. What you want to do is really weigh the options and make an informed decision. Gerri the other thing that happens is that the next available flight is on another airline. How hard is that . Another airline, a different connecting city, and additional stop on your trip. None of these are ideal, but the real point is to be flexible and be up front and prioritize your trip. Gerri all right. And dont take your back because next weekend it is going to be a bad idea. Thank you for coming on. Appreciate your time. Thanks for having me. Gerri all right. Flying can be such a pain. Ridiculous please, long delays. Some airlines are trying to make the experience a little bit nicer by offering sex. Says the way to my heart is to my stomach that is tonights top five, but be prepared to travel overseas. Air france. I hope im saying this right. Based in the united arab emirates, fly with snacking on free range hands and honey produced by their own bees. Holy cow. They offer a line of signature pickles. Unbelievable. Turkish airlines, complimentary champagne, soup, icecream, and the famous rich turkish coffee. Royal dutch airlines. Its about drinking with the dutch jen. And the number one airline for snacking is a lane airlines. Mangos, macadamia nuts, and more could be found. The only other American Airline to make the list, jet blue coming in and number seven thanks to their neverending basket of salty and sweet treats. You like that stuff. Still to come, my 2 cents more stocks weakened again after more tepid earnings reports. Where should you invest . Thats next. Gerri my next guest says the pending fiscal cliff is way overblown. It is earnings you should be worried about. Is he right . Gerri in focus, we talk a lot about the looming fiscal cliff. A disappointing earnings season so far, and it may get worse sending stocks tumbling even more. Small investors could see their portfolios said. Rob morgan chief investment strategist jjins me now. Lets start with the fiscal cliff. Because you think this is just way oversold, somebody out there selling a bill of goods trying to scare people. I think congress created the parameters around the fiscal cliff. Congress will find a way to and are we going to come up with a grand compromise . No. We wont do that. Are we going to kick that can down the road . More than likely yes. Is that calamitous for the stock markets . Notes. Its not the solution you want. Gerri im glad youre convinced. Im not convinced. Gerri if they fail we are looking at 12 percent unemployment, 6 million jobs lost by 2015. This is a report from the National Association of manufacturers up today. It makes the case that this would be calamitous for the economy and calamitous for stocks of companies trying to make earnings. I did not say they were going to do the right thing. I said there were going to avoid calamity. Avoid a calamity. I do believe they will do that. Thats a done deal. Gerri i hope youre right because i dont have all the confidence you do. What is interesting also is this earnings cliff. You say its not that bad. Yet we have seen 60 S P Companies not hit revenue targets. I find that troubling. Commenced a number. That topline is not so managed. You cannot fake fat. If your revenues are going down that means a be you are not vesting, people are not buying your products. Very basic. There is no doubt, we are in the midst of what i would call a mild global slowdown, and we knew this earnings season was going to be terrible. And earnings are living up to that expectation. There is already some signs that we are seeing a slight pickup around the globe. And gerri what are those signs . Well, i think a lot of it seems to be when companies are coming out reporting, particularly u. S. Multinationals theyre saying that spending is being held back, primarily due to the election as a for instance concern over that. So from reading the tea leaves of these earnings reports and these earnings announcements it seems like this could be a trough earnings season has opposed gerri this would be the lowest point. Start to rebound. A lot of people who do what you do think that its going to get even worse. And that is what makes markets. Gerri because of their analysis of what is going on with the fiscal cleft. You know, i think that when we look at this it is interesting because, for example, we have the report this week on apple. Apple had earnings that were 24 higher than the your previous and did not make the number expected and that it. So it is really a game. To you think you see some glimmers among individual companies . I do. As i said, it seems like the companies that preannounced that there were going to have troubles did not get punished so badly. But there have been some negative surprises, and those Companies Really got whacked. Back to the overall picture, we knew this season was going to be bad. Gerri is living up to your low expectations. And also keep in mind that for future quarters, future comparisons when you have a bad quarter like this it makes it easier down the road. Gerri said they plan to make things look better. Thank you for the help. Appreciated. Stay dry this weekend. I know you are visiting the big apple. We will be right back with my 2 cents more and my answer to the question of the date. Other democrats and president getting desperate . Stay with us. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, you wont just find us online, youll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. So when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. Because personal Service Starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Our support teams are nearby, ready to help. Its no wonder so many investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. 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